Sambalpur: A group of Plus II students has earned the appreciation of people after they helped the Forest officials extinguish a raging fire in a forest near their school in Odisha’s Sambalpur district.
According to sources, the locals spotted the fire in the forest behind the higher secondary school at Batagaon under Nakatideula forest range of Rairakhol division in the district at around 1.30 pm and informed the Forest department.
A team of Forest officials led by forest guard Chitta Ranjan Miri along with 2 blowers went to the spot and started extinguishing the fire. After putting out the fire for nearly 50 metre into the forest, the team found 15 students of the school already engaged in the work.
“The students under the guidance of Political Science lecturer of the school Prafulla Kumar Pradhan were preventing the fire from spreading further. Armed with tree branches, they were sweeping the dry leaves from the forest floor and stamping out the fire from the bushes. By the time we reached, they had already extinguished 30% of the forest fire,” said Miri.
He said the Forest officials with the help of the students managed to totally extinguish the fire within half an hour and thus saved the forest from turning into ashes. “Due to timely intervention of the students under wise guidance of their lecturer, precious sal and teak trees and wild animals like hare, peacocks, bear and snakes could be saved from being perished in the wildfire in the forest area of 20 hectare,” said the forest guard.
Expressing their gratitude to the Forest department for prompt response, lecturer Pradhan said, “Protection of forest is not the responsibility of the officials only. As responsible citizens, we need to take care of our flora and fauna. I only tried to make the students aware of our duty towards nature and society.”
